Emmerdale actress Meg Johnson – who performed Pearl Ladderbanks on the ITV cleaning soap – has died, her household have mentioned.

The 86-year-old was described as a “kind and wonderful lady” in a joint assertion from her household, expertise company Jorg Betts Associates and the ITV present.

It mentioned: “It is with great sadness that we announce that actress Meg Johnson passed away peacefully yesterday evening surrounded by her family.

“Meg was a form and fantastic girl, full of heat and all the time with a twinkle in her eye.”

The assertion mentioned Johnson had dementia for the previous couple of years, however “battled on personally and professionally regardless”.

“She will be greatly missed by everyone who knew her,” it added.

Johnson performed Pearl Ladderbanks within the ITV cleaning soap from 2003. In the early Nineteen Eighties, she starred as Eunice Gee in ITV’s Coronation Street, a personality she briefly reprised in 1999.

Prior to becoming a member of Emmerdale, Johnson spent a number of years taking part in Brigid McKenna in Channel 4 cleaning soap opera Brookside.

Johnson was additionally a part of the solid of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV alongside the late comic in addition to Dame Julie Walters and Celia Imrie.

In 1997, she took to the stage within the unique solid of the London revival of Chicago, taking part in jail warder Matron Mama Morton for greater than a yr, and will be heard on the London Cast Recording of Chicago, singing When You’re Good To Mama, Me And My Baby, and Class.

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Johnson was married to ITV Granada continuity announcer Charles Foster, who was broadly reported to have died earlier this yr.